The transmission of disease by touching contaminated surfaces is well known, especially in healthcare associated facilities. Research studies have found the following key statistics relating to healthcare associated infections.
Infections developed during healthcare related treatment is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States and causes over 98,000 deaths per year which is more deaths than breast cancer, AIDS and automobile accidents combined. These infections add an average of $15,000 to a patient's bill and total over $40 billion a year in added healthcare costs.
A substantial number of the infections are caused by touching contaminated surfaces in a healthcare facility. Research has shown that only 38% of healthcare workers follow hand washing guide lines and nurses gloves were infected 42% of the time from touching surfaces in a patient's room. It has also been established that 80% of infectious diseases are transferred by touch, meaning person-to-person or surface-to-person. A study of 113 surfaces in hospital wards over a 14 day period showed that 76% of these surfaces had unacceptable levels of microbes after cleaning.
There are of course many surfaces in a healthcare environment that may be contaminated, but an extensive study in 2002 showed that 27% of door handles in a very large university hospital were contaminated with life threatening infections. As a large hospital would have thousands of door handles, it is clear that there is a significant chance of infection from door handles alone in a hospital environment. The chance of infectious disease from door handles is of course also applicable to non-healthcare facilities such as nursing homes, restaurants, movie theatres, malls, train and bus stations, fitness centers, schools and any other public facility.
There are a number of prior art patents directed to sanitizing door handles. Examples of such patents include U.S. Pat. No. 6,645,435 to Dawson et al, U.S. Pat. No. 6,879,697 to Callueng, U.S. Pat. No. 7,360,674 to Sassoon and U.S. Pat. No. 7,850,114 to Lavy. In general, the known prior art patents directed to sanitizing door handles describe devices that for the most part are mounted on the surface of the door or describe complex mechanisms or methods for sanitizing the door handle.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for sanitizing door handles that fits within the door and is compatible with most, if not all, of the doors typically used in healthcare facilities.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for sanitizing door handles that eliminates the unsightly appearance of a device being mounted on the outside of the door.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for sanitizing door handles that sanitizes all surfaces of the door handle during each application through the use of adjustable spray nozzles.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for sanitizing door handles that includes either electronic or mechanical activation devices.